Page 36 - KPRM 2019

Kent County Council, Medway Council & Kent’s District Council Commentary
Infrastructure and Regeneration
Continued
town-houses in spring 2017. Crest Nicholson’s award- winning Finberry scheme, a 1,100 home community on the south-eastern outskirts of Ashford, is recognised as a quality development, with a primary school, health centre and community facilities adding to the village feel of the development.
The Clarion Housing Group is building 300 lakeside homes at Conningbrook, alongside a family country park benefiting from a watersports centre.
Planning consent has been granted for the Kent Wool Growers site in Tannery Lane in Ashford town centre for
a mixed-use development of homes, public realm and a riverside walkway. The proposals by U+I Group Plc will see 243 one, two and three bed apartments across four buildings between six and 14 storeys high.
The new £104m J10a on the M20 has been built south east of the existing J10 and will be a catalyst for further economic and commercial development. The new junction, the third to serve Ashford, is due to open in late 2019. This new junction will serve a number of nearby developments, including the 140 acre Waterbrook Park. The GSE Group’s masterplan includes 400 homes, new commercial space creating nearly 1,000 jobs, shops, restaurants and parkland. The expanded Ashford International Truckstop is taking shape, with owners GSE saying the work will double the capacity of the existing truckstop to 600 HGV places. Adjoining J10a is MOJO, a greenfield site of around 111,484m2 (1.2m ft2 ) with planning consent for storage and distribution. This is being marketed as a development opportunity ideally located for import and export with superb onward links to the rest of the UK.
For more information:
www.ashfordfor.com
Canterbury
In Canterbury the City Council continues to work with partners Linkcity to progress The Riverside mixed-use scheme, further regenerating the Kingsmead area of the city. In November 2018 Councillors agreed to invest £23m in the project which will see the council retain ownership
of the cinema, restaurants, car park, the public square and entertainment area. Following this investment, further deals have been signed with The Hyde Group, who will deliver 189 affordable homes across the scheme and Curzon, who will operate the five-screen cinema. Construction is expected to start on site this autumn, with completion of the commercial component due in summer 2021.
Work has also begun on the former Slatters Hotel redevelopment to deliver a high quality 131 bedroom hotel, retail units and roof-top destination restaurant in the city centre for completion in autumn 2020. Following interest from six hotel chains the site has been taken up by
Hampton by Hilton, which is part of the Hilton Worldwide group. Alongside this, a new luxury 28 bedroom hotel and restaurant opened on the outskirts of Canterbury this spring in the village of Bridge. The Home Grown Hotels chain launched the Pig Hotel in the 16th century manor house formerly known as Bridge Place Country Club. This site was selected as part of a £30m expansion plan to add three new boutique, quintessentially British hotels to their portfolio.
In the seaside town of Herne Bay the council is progressing its £5.9m Beach Street project to transform two former council-owned car parks and a number of disused and derelict buildings into a new residential and commercial complex. The scheme was granted permission in May 2019 with work expected to start in early 2020 and finish in late 2022. As well as providing 33 new residential properties, retail units and artists’ studio spaces in the heart of the town, the project will also enable people to move more easily between the seafront and shops, cafés and other amenities in the
Proposal for Guildhall Quarter, Canterbury.
34 Kent Property Market Report 2019
PHOTO: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS